History

Professional Development Foundation (PDF) started in 1975 as a network of practitioners (initially in education, social service and health sectors) who came together to share practice, develop new approaches to meeting client needs and undertake small scale research projects. However, it built on an earlier network (called Advice) which from 1964 promoted community projects in education, social and environmental issues.

Out of these discussions it was apparent that traditional education was unable to provide practitioner based support and learning. We subsequently developed the idea of creating work based accreditation methods, which later resulted in the first Work-Based Learning qualification in the UK in 1978 through the Royal Society of Health.

In 1987 a Foundation was established (as a company limited by guarantee) to continue the networking events to explore and develop, research, consultation and education projects.

The Foundation remains committed to developing practitioner networks. It does not engage in commercial activities.